Paris Metro Guide: Tickets, Fares & How to Ride

Paris Metro Map

The standard metro map is available at every Paris Metro station. It shows you all lines and stops for the Metro, RER, and Tram throughout the city. Bus lines are not included — for those, there’s a separate Paris bus map.

You can download the metro map as a PDF here. That way you’ll have it on your phone and can zoom in whenever you need a closer look.

You can also find the Paris metro map in the app “Paris Metro – Map and Routes”.

The app works offline, shows train departure times, and has extra travel info built in. You can switch it to English, and it’s free — available for Android and for iOS.

Paris Metro Fare Zones

Since the start of 2025, you no longer need to worry about fare zones in Paris — the zone system has been abolished.

A flat fare now applies instead. A single ticket for the Metro, RER, and Transilien (within the Île-de-France region) costs a flat 2.50 euros, regardless of how far you travel or how many zones you cross.

The price is always the same, whether you’re heading to your hotel in Paris or out to the Arc de Triomphe.

This also applies to destinations like Versailles (formerly Zone 3), Disneyland Paris (formerly Zone 5), Paris Orly Airport, and Charles de Gaulle Airport.

More tips for airport transfers in Paris can be found here:

The Navigo Card for the Paris Metro

Paper tickets in Paris are gone. Instead, you now choose between the Navigo Card or a ticketing app.

Let’s start with the Navigo Card.

The Navigo Card is a rechargeable transit card the size of a credit card, available in two versions:

Navigo Easy Travel Card: No passport photo required, the plastic card costs 2 euros + fare, can be loaded with single rides or a day pass, no weekly subscription available, sold at machines and ticket windows

Navigo Découverte Travel Card: Passport photo required, the plastic card costs 5 euros + fare, can be loaded with single rides or a day pass, weekly subscription also available, only sold at ticket windows

Both Navigo card options are valid for all public transportation in Paris! Just make sure to select the correct ticket types when loading your card so it covers every mode of transit you plan to use — Metro, RER, bus, and tram.

Navigo Card Fares

Navigo Card pricing is refreshingly simple. In practice, there are really only two fare options that matter to most visitors:

• Navigo Day Pass (Navigo Jour): approximately 12 euros per day, valid for unlimited trips across the Paris transit network on a single calendar day
• Navigo Weekly Pass (Semaine): approximately 30 euros, unlimited rides across the Paris transit network for one full week (Mon.–Sun. only — it doesn’t roll over across two calendar weeks)

Important: With the fare system overhaul in 2025, the classic “Carnet de 10” (ten-ride booklet) was discontinued — the whole single-ride system switched to a uniform flat-rate model.

Buying the Navigo Card

Whichever version you go for, we’d recommend picking it up at the ticket window. You can ask questions right there, and the staff speak English — well, or French, hehe.

That’s also where you’ll hand over your photo for the Navigo Découverte and pay the card issuance fee of 2 or 5 euros.

The card won’t be loaded at the window, though. You’ll do that yourself at the ticket machine right after.

Loading Your Navigo Card

Once you have your card, head to the nearest ticket machine to top it up.

Just place the card on the purple card reader on the machine. Once it’s detected, you can switch the interface to English — super straightforward from there.

Select “Load Navigo” and then pick your preferred fare or amount.

If you want to load a weekly pass, the entire Île-de-France region is automatically included and you pay the flat rate of around 30 euros — seriously good value for unlimited rides over seven days within a single week.

For trips to destinations outside the city center, like Disneyland or Versailles, your weekly Navigo covers all zones.

If you’ve loaded a day pass and want to travel further out, you can also add an extra ticket called “Billet Ile-de-France.” We’ll cover that in more detail below.

Once you’ve selected your fare at the machine, confirm and pay by card. You’re good to go.

Using Your Navigo Card

To get through the turnstiles or gates in the Metro, just hold your card over the scanning area of the reader. The system picks it up and the barrier opens.

Heads up: If you’re traveling with a stroller or pet buggy, you won’t fit through the standard turnstiles — same goes for anyone in a wheelchair or using a walker. In that case, use the accessible entrance on the side. A staff member will open it for you. You’ll still need to show or scan your ticket.

Is the Navigo Card Worth It for Kids Too?

Children under three ride the Paris Metro for free. For kids aged four and up, the Navigo Card only makes financial sense from four days of use onward, or when you’re planning a lot of trips.

Otherwise, single tickets at half price for children up to 11 years old are the cheaper option. From age 12, kids pay full price.

Visiting Paris with kids? Then also check out:

Paris Ticket App IDF Mobilités for Digital Tickets

If you prefer to keep everything on your phone, you can do the same with Paris Metro tickets.

The IDF Mobilités (Île-de-France Mobilités) app lets you buy all your tickets on your phone using a stored credit card or Apple Pay, then save them to your wallet.

Île-de-France Mobilités for iOS

Île-de-France Mobilités for Android

We tested the app ourselves on our last trip to Paris and here’s what we found:

1. The app is required: Unlike in London, you can’t just tap your credit card or phone at the turnstile. You need to download the app, actively purchase your ticket, and save it first.
2. Scan at the turnstile: You then scan the digital ticket directly at the barrier.
3. Great for occasional rides: We used it to buy single tickets, since we walked a lot and only hopped on the Metro here and there. For us, that made more sense than paying around 30 euros for a Navigo weekly pass.
4. Connectivity can be unreliable: Sometimes the app is slow to load. Our advice: buy your ticket in the morning at the hotel over Wi-Fi — that way you’re covered before you head out.

Important: You can’t load multiple tickets for multiple people onto one phone. Everyone needs to buy and save their own ticket on their own device. We tried scanning two tickets from one phone back to back. It doesn’t work.

Other Fare Options in Paris

As mentioned above, Paris now runs on just two systems: the Navigo card and the app. Things have been heavily digitized and simplified. Here are the additional ticket types you can load onto your Navigo card or buy in the app:

Single Tickets (Ticket T+)

If you only need a handful of individual rides on the Paris Metro, single Ticket t+ fares are the way to go. They’re no longer sold as paper tickets — instead, they’re purchased digitally:

• loaded onto a Navigo Easy Card, or
• loaded directly onto your smartphone via the app.

The price per ride is 2.50 euros. Children aged four to nine pay 1.25 euros.

With a Ticket t+, you can travel for two hours from the moment of first validation within Paris — covering the Metro, bus, tram (except T-Express), the Montmartre funicular, and certain RER routes within the city limits.

Since 2026, the Ticket t+ can no longer be used to travel to Disneyland Paris. You’ll need a separate Origin-Destination ticket for that trip.

Billet Ile-de-France

With the Billet Île-de-France (also called an Origin-Destination ticket), you travel from a specific departure station to a fixed destination outside Paris — for example Versailles or Disneyland Paris.

The price is based on the route, not on zones. You can get these tickets at the machine for your Navigo Card or in the app, and they’re valid for that one specific journey.

This ticket replaces the old zone-based single tickets for trips to the surrounding area.

Mobilis Day Ticket

The Mobilis day ticket for unlimited rides on the Metro, RER, bus, and tram was discontinued on January 1, 2025. Paper tickets are gone, and the classic Mobilis system no longer exists.

The replacement is the Navigo Day Pass (Navigo Jour), which we covered above under the Navigo fare options.

Navigo Jour gives you unlimited rides within one day (12:00 AM–11:59 PM) across the entire Paris transit network (excluding airport transfers) and costs approximately 12 euros per day.

You can load it onto your Navigo Card or your smartphone.

Functionally, Navigo Jour is exactly equivalent to the old Mobilis day ticket — just digital and reusable.

Paris Metro Tickets at a Glance

For a side-by-side comparison, here’s a table of all the Paris Metro ticket options we’ve covered:

Using the Paris Metro with a City Pass?

There’s a wide range of Paris city passes out there. However, public transportation in Paris is unfortunately not included in any of them.

If you’d still like to explore the pass options, you can find more here:

Public Transportation in Paris at a Glance

Here’s a quick rundown of the various transit options in Paris and everything you need to know about getting around:

Paris Metro

• Operating hours: Mon–Thu 5:30 AM to 1:00 AM, Fri–Sun 5:30 AM to 2:00 AM
• Frequency: every five to ten minutes
• Lines: 14 lines across the Île-de-France region

There’s a good reason the Metro is the city’s main way of getting around. It’s fast, reliable, and the fares are really reasonable.

The Paris Metro network is also incredibly well developed. It covers the entire city, and you’ll find a station near virtually every major attraction.

RER Paris

• Operating hours: daily 6:00 AM to 12:45 AM
• Frequency: every six to ten minutes & every ten to fifteen minutes
• Lines: 5 lines across the Île-de-France region

The RER is Paris’s commuter rail network — a suburban train system that links the city center to destinations further out.

As a visitor, the RER is important because it serves key spots like Disneyland (RER A), Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports (RER B), and Versailles (RER C).

And the RER network connects seamlessly with the Metro — many stops are served by both.

Buses in Paris

• Operating hours: daily 7:00 AM to 8:30 PM, Noctambus 1:00 AM to 5:00 AM
• Frequency: weekdays every four to fifteen minutes, Sat & Sun every eight to twenty minutes
• Lines: 1,435 lines across the Île-de-France region

Tourists tend to completely overlook buses in Paris. That’s a real shame. The bus network is actually even more extensive than the Metro, and thanks to the different routes, you see Paris from a completely different angle.

The big plus, of course, is the windows. You get to watch the city go by as you ride — something you definitely don’t get underground.

Bus rides are covered by your Navigo Card.

Vélib’ Bike Rentals

Rental bikes have been part of Paris life for years. After a full fleet replacement in recent years, they’re back in solid shape and well worth using.

Here’s how it works:

There are around 1,000 Vélib’ stations across Paris. You rent directly at the machines at each station — they can be set to English, so it’s super easy.

First, take a look at the bikes at the station to make sure you pick one in good condition. Note the number of the bike you want, then enter it during the rental process at the machine to unlock it.

You can rent for 30 to 90 minutes, one day, or seven days. The first 30 minutes are free. Anything beyond that costs between 1 and 8 euros. Payment is by credit card only.

At the machine, you’ll set a personal code for your bike and get a receipt. Then you’re off.

For quick point-to-point trips, the bikes are excellent. Just make sure to ride carefully — Paris city traffic is no joke.

To return the bike, head to any Vélib’ station, slide it into the dock, and wait until the orange light turns green.

Extra Tip: Hop-on/Hop-off Bus & Boat in Paris

Hop-on/hop-off buses and boats are a fantastic alternative to public transit in Paris. They stop at all the major attractions and cruise along the Seine.

Yes, Paris Metro tickets and the Navigo Card are cheaper — but the hop-on/hop-off comes with an audio guide packed with interesting information about the sights. And you combine getting around with sightseeing at the same time. That’s seriously convenient.

You can buy a ticket for 24 or 48 hours and hop on and off as many times as you like at the numerous stops and piers around the city during that time.

Our favorite is the Big Bus Paris:

Tickets for Hop-on/Hop-off Big Bus Paris
More about city tours in Paris:

Frequently Asked Questions about the Paris Metro

Is the Paris Metro accessible?

Honestly, not really. The Paris Metro is far from accessible — there’s been a lot of debate about this, and the system is genuinely difficult to navigate for people with disabilities.

We experienced this firsthand with a stroller. No elevators, no escalators, and the turnstiles are so narrow that we had to use the accessibility entrance every time.

That said: Parisians are happy to help. Someone always stepped in to help carry the stroller up or down — often without even being asked.

How late does the Paris Metro run?

The Metro starts running from 5:00 AM every morning.

It closes at 1:00 AM on weeknights, and at 2:00 AM on Fridays and Saturdays. All stations are locked behind rolling gates after that, so keep an eye on the time when you’re out in Paris at night.

If you miss the last train, you can always order another drink and wait until 5:00 AM when the Metro starts up again.

To estimate travel time, count the stops to your destination on the metro map and allow about two minutes per stop, plus five minutes for each transfer.

How do I know when to get off?

Every car has a map showing all the stations on that line. On newer trains, the next upcoming station blinks on the display — though not on all lines yet.

The map also shows which stations have connections to other lines, so you can plan your transfers easily.

What are my chances of getting a seat?

You’ll rarely spend more than ten minutes on a single train in Paris — but a seat is still a nice thing to have.

Your best bet is the very front or very back of the train, where it tends to be less crowded than the middle. As the train pulls in, glance through the windows to see which sections look emptier.

Sometimes one door is packed while the one right next to it — just about four meters away — is nearly empty.

Near the doors you’ll find fold-down seats. If the car fills up and people start crowding around the doorway, you should give these up. Staying in a fold-down seat when it’s crowded is considered pretty rude.

Are there still bedbugs in the Paris Metro?

2023 saw a major bedbug scare in Paris. How serious it really was is hard to say.

What is clear: an investigation ordered by the French Ministry of Transport found that there are no traces of bedbugs in the Paris Metro.

Are dogs allowed on the Paris Metro?

Small dogs up to 6 kilos can ride the Paris Metro for free. For larger dogs, you’ll need a half-price ticket — the same as a child’s fare.

Are dog strollers allowed on the Metro?

Yes. Dog strollers are allowed on the Paris Metro.

Can I bring a bicycle on the Paris Metro?

No. Bicycles are not allowed on the Paris Metro or on buses.

Can I buy a Navigo Card on the Eurostar?

It’s partially possible to buy Paris Metro tickets on the Eurostar. However, not all ticket types are always available, and the prices on board are often higher than what you’d pay in Paris.

You’re better off buying your ticket directly in Paris at a ticket window or machine.